1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a disk drive and associated method for accessing storage locations of a disk storage medium, and more particularly, to the use of a mailbox file associated with the disk storage medium for performing a function characterized by contents of the mailbox file.
2. Background Information
Standard communication between a host computer, such as PC-based computer, and a hard disk drive is conventionally performed using a disk drive host interface. The hard disk drive can be, for example, an Integrated Drive Electronics/AT Attachment (IDE/ATA)-compliant hard drive, a SCSI-compliant hard drive, a fibre channel device (e.g., one or more hard drives used with associated fibre channel switches in a multi-disk environment), or any other type of hard disk drive or storage systems.
Generally speaking, the computer's operating system accesses a hard disk drive as an input/output (I/O) device connected to a bus, such as the IDE/ATA, SCSI or fibre channel bus. Conventional techniques for communicating between the host computer and the hard disk drive via a standard bus have been limited to transferring information to and from the hard disk drive via the disk drive host interface using a standard disk drive host interface protocol. Such a convention vests control over all operations with the operating system, and the hard disk drive serves as a slave to the host computer. All command signals are supplied by the host computer to the hard disk drive via the disk drive host interface such that the host computer controls all read and write operations for transferring data from or to the hard disk drive. The disk drive host interface possesses knowledge of all addressable locations on a disk storage medium associated with the hard disk drive, with some of the locations being dedicated for use by the operating system and the remaining locations being designated user space (e.g., available for use by application programs).
With the substantially increased density of hard disk drives, the user space has increased beyond practical demands. As the ability to provide additional disk storage space continues to exceed demand, it would be desirable to develop alternate uses for excess space available in the hard disk drive, and to use the excess space to enhance functionality of the hard disk drive. In so doing, it would be desirable to retain compatibility of the hard disk drive with conventional host computers and their operating systems. In addition, it would be desirable to allow the hard disk drive to provide additional features and functionality within the hard disk drive without the hard disk drive requiring prior knowledge of, and without requiring modification to, the host computer operating system or its associated drivers.